[6] Task Scheduler can be compared to cron or anacron on Unix-like operating systems.

This service should not be confused with the scheduler, which is a core component of the OS kernel that allocates CPU resources to processes already running.

[9] It runs as a Windows Service, and the task definitions and schedules are stored in binary .job files.

The binary ".job" files which the AT command produces are stored in the %WINDIR%\Tasks directory.

[19][9] The redesigned Task Scheduler user interface is now based on Management Console.

Task Scheduler includes a number of actions built-in, spanning a number of applications; including send an e-mail, show a message box, or fire a COM handler when it is triggered.

[24] The Windows API does not, however, include a managed wrapper for Task Scheduler though an open source implementation exists.

The common codes for scheduled tasks are:[27][28] On Windows 2000 and Windows XP, when a computer is prepared for disk imaging with the sysprep utility, it cannot run tasks configured to run in the context of the SYSTEM account.

There is no solution for this problem but one may reschedule the affected tasks to work around the issue.